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The cars have been used so extensively nowadays, that they tend to turn into a separate cultural subcategory, especially when the German culture is concerned. The exteriors always define the first impression. That is why people purchase expensive vehicles, committing money rather to the brand image of a car than to the perfect technical devices, or luxurious interiors. The top positions in the lists of the most prestigious cars are fixedly occupied by German automobiles Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, and Audi. The first two target at the most well-off people, and offer absolutely first-rate but very costly select autos.

Audi, the elite subdivision of Volkswagen Group, prefers another tactic: its models, having presentable appearance and excellent technical performance, compete with the other rivals on a single, but very important parameter - price. Opel models are designed for middle-class population, especially for rational-minded people who will never rack their brains whether or not to buy BMW or Mercedes. They will simply buy Opel, bearing with the lack of comfort and... thinking about annual turnover.
The presentations of new Mercedes models turn into epoch-making events - like Moon shots, German reunification, or Ferrari's victory in Formula-1 races, but they happen much more often. And each time it is a rattler. The history of Mercedes is rich. It started in 1899 with the first success of Emil Jellinek, an Austrian diplomat and a Daimler sales agent, at European races under the pseudonym "Mercedes" (Jellinek's eldest daughter's name). Soon Jellinek initiated production of a new Daimler model, and ventured to sell them marked as Mercedes in Europe and the USA. The idea was such a success that ever since 1902 all Daimler vehicles changed their name to Mercedes. The world of cars, like that of humans, is complex and versatile. It includes all: losers and favorites, the plain and the beautiful. There are also aristocrats. Sure, the last category is represented by BMW models of 3 series, 5 series, 7 series. The cars produced in Bayern have no need for worldwide advertising campaigns, nor for pompous presentations. The superb quality shows through the tight rows of worthy competitors like Audi, Jaguar, and Mercedes.

Mercedes History

The name Mercedes originates from the 3rd child of Emil and Rachel Jellinek. It is a Spanish Christian name which means 'grace'. The meaning of grace in English, amongst others definitions, is charm and elegance and that is exactly what each Mercedes model has.

As a businessman and an inventor himself Emil Jellinek had interest in automobiles and travelled from Stuttgart where he lived, to Cannstatt to meet with Gottlieb Daimler, of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. Over the years that followed Jellinek purchased a number of Daimler vehicles. In 1898 he ordered a Daimler Phoenix with a four cylinder engine and entered in the tour de Nice. Emil continued to enter in the automobile competitions under the name Mercedes and won his first Tour de Nice in 1899.

Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft continually improved on the design making the model lower and faster. Emil Jellinek thought the new design was better and put in an order of thirty six cars but on the conditions that Jellinek was the sole agent for Austria-Hungary, France and America and that the vehicles must be named Mercedes after his daughter. The contract was worth a substantial amount to Daimler so this arrangement was agreed. In 1902 a trademark was taken out on Mercedes as the name caught on so well.

Daimler and Benz between the two companies built the first motorcycle, the first diesel powered truck, the first truck, the first bus and the first internal combustion powered boat. The Daimler engines were in the first successful aircraft. The basis of these particular ways of transport is represented by the three pointed star, on land, on the sea and in the air.

In 1923 Ferdinand Porsche helped to develop the supercharged Mercedes Benz SS and SSK.

Through the years of Mercedes, models include:
Daimler Motor Carriage, Benz Viktoria, Benz Spider, Mercedes Race Car, 20/35 PS Landaulet, 22/40 HP, Grand Prix Race Car, Knight 16/45, 10/40/65 HP, Targa Florio, 630, S 26/120/180, SSK 27/170/225, 460 Nurburg, 770, 500K, 150, 540K, W125 Formula Race Car, 170V, W165 Formula Race Car, 170S, 190 SL, 300D, 300 SL, 230 SL, 660 and 280 SE to name but a few.

More recent models are:
A Class, C Class, E Class, G Class, M Class, S Class, SL Class, SLK Class, CL Class, CLK Class, V Class and Vaneo.

Other manufactures who have worked with Mercedes are Cosworth who breathed on the 190 engine, AMG and Brabus which are companies that tailor the cars into something special. An example that springs to mind of AMG is the awesome CL55 which is used as a Formula 1 Safety Car with a tuned V8 engine, that accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in just 6 seconds.

"The Ultimate Driving Machine

In 1913 manufacture of airplane engines under the name of Rapp Motoren Werke was started.

Bayerische MotorenWerke came into being in 1916 through a merger between Rapp Motorenwerke and Gustav Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik. They began to produce aircraft engines and then moved on to motorcycle engines but didn't go into car production until 1928.

When they took over a small company called Dixi, BMW inherited the licence to manufacture Austin Sevens. BMW continued with the work that Dixi had been doing in producing these British designed cars known as the 3/15 CV. In 1929 a sports version won the team prize in the Alpine Cup and then went on to win the class prize in the 1930 Monte Carlo Rally.

In 1933 a chap called Frits Fiedler was made chief engineer and was responsible for their six cylinder engine which was fitted to the 303(1173cc, 30hp) in that year. This was the beginning of a long run of performance cars including the 328 of 1937 which came to win the Mille Miglia with an average speed of over 103mph, it was driven by Von Hanstein. The last car to be produced before the Second World War was the 335 which had a 3485cc engine.

After the hostilities had ended production resumed in 1952 with the 501, later models included the 502 and 507 but production was low and during the fifties recovery from the ravages of war was slow. In 1959 BMW had bankruptcy looming over them and had to come up with a car that could be sold in quantity to bring in some needed revenue. Again going back to building a car under licence they chose the Italian Isetta. A small runabout it ws produced from 1955 to 1962 and had some success helping the company to stay in business over this period. During this same period in 1959 BMW started production of another little car called the 700 with just 2 cylinders and a Michelotti designed body it was a great success and over 180,000 where built until 1965. The biggest impact for BMW came when they brought out the 1500 in 1962, the range consisted of 4 door (1800 - 2000) and 2 door (1602 - 2002) saloons.

During the period 1968 to 1977 BMW produced a run of 2500 and 3300cc saloons culminating in the famous CS coupes.

Over the 1970s BMW went through a period of updating there range and also rationalizing their production into 3 basic lines.

In 1972 the Series 5 was launched including 4 and 6 cylinder saloon models with 1800-3500 and also the Series 7 which where 6 cylinder engines only and where more prestigious and well equipped models. The later Series 6 coupes where to be developed from the Series 7. In 1975 the Series 3 was launched including 4 and 6 cylinder saloon models with 1800-2300.

BMW have moved on with their basic 3 models to become one of the most prestigious car manufacturers today, they have gone through many changes as a company having at times owned Rover before selling it to a company formed by the Rover management team, and Land Rover before selling to Ford but not before getting some ideas for the BMW X5 off roader.

BMW have been adding to their range with special models such as the popular Z3. They have also competed favourably in all major motorsport arenas including Formula 1. Their expertise and knowledge has been brought to the public road in their M (Motorsport) series of vehicles denoted by the famous 'M' badge on their most special road cars like the M3 and the M5. These cars are usually tested against some of the best sports cars in the world including Porsche.

They have also contributed in no small way to one of the fastest road cars ever built, the McLaren F1 has a BMW 6.1 litre V12 engine to drive this formidable car onto 235mph.

BMW have also brought back the Mini and Mini Cooper S with great succes and own the Rolls Royce name and on 1st January 2003 delivered the new Rolls Royce from their new factory in Goodwood, this is the first all new Rolls Royce for some considerable time.

Porsche History

The ever present Porsche. Watching movies, adverts of any video material and somehow Porsches are always there!

Porsche - A Performance and Sports Car Legend

Porsche has recently announced their new Carrera 4S model, a highly sophisticated development of the original performance classic car, the Porsche 911. But lets look a little further back into Porsche's history.

Imagine that you had designed a performance sports car that contained a fundamental design flaw. What would you do? Change it and eradicate the flaw forever? Or would you persist for the next 50 or so years in making the best of the bad design?

You would have probably gone for the first option. If you had gone for the second then you would probably now be producing a car like the Porsche Carrera 4S - for indeed, that is exactly what German performance sports car manufacturer Porsche did.

Stemming from the Porsche's first sports car, and the first car Porsche produced in it's own right - the Porsche 356 - the Porsche 911 has maintained the basic "rear-engine, rear-wheel drive" layout concept that is a basic flaw in any car design, let alone a high performance sports car.

Yet, over the years, Porsche has managed to tame the design to reduce the car's natural tendency to oversteer dramatically and unpredictably. You could say that there are good drivers, fast drivers, racing drivers and then good Porsche 911 drivers.

It takes something a little special to handle a Porsche 911 consistently and safely. The four-wheel drive versions, of which the new Carreras 4S is the latest incarnation, have gone a long way to correcting the inherent handling problems which are still present with rear-engine cars. The fact that many Formula One drivers will at some time have owned or used a 911, is sufficient testimony to this performance classic.

Of course Porsche could, at any time have moved the 911's engine and produced a well-balanced mid-engine super car. But Porsche being Porsche, they concentrated on perfecting what they had. In the process Porsche engineers and designers managed to retain the intrinsic and enduring style of the 911.

The Porsche 911 has gone through many changes and models numbers - the Porsche 964, 993 and 996, the latter being the latest version. There have also been front-engine alternatives in the Porsche 924, 944. 928 and 968 models. These models have cleverly each attracted a new breed of Porsche owner when introduced, thus widening the appeal of the Porsche badge.

Turbo engine versions have dramatically enhanced the already substantial performance, the 911 Turbo "Whale Tail" from the 1980's being one of the original all time classic turbo cars.

Porsche supplemented the range with Speedster and Cabriolet models.

The company also enjoyed a good deal of motor racing success, particularly in the Le Mans 24 Hours and similar endurance races. Classic racers such as the 904, 917(the "Steve McQueen Porsche"), 935, 956 and 959 are some of the most successful motor race cars ever. In addition, Porsche had some in involvement in Formula One including the manufacture of the TAG Turbo engine for McLaren until 1987.

Ferdinand Porsche started the company, which developed as consultant designers to motor manufacturers. One of his most famous contributions was of course to the design of the German "people's car", the car that ultimately became known as the Volkswagen Beetle. But it was Porsche's son, Ferry who took design origins stemming from the Volkswagen Beetle and the Auto Union P-Wagen to produce project number 356 or the Porsche 356 as it became. The 356 had a steel platform chassis, aluminium body and a VW 1131cc engine, mounted at the rear.

By 1965 over 80,000 Porsche 356's had been made. However, it was Ferry Porsche's son Ferdinand (known as "Butzi") who was responsible for the 356's replacement, the Porsche 911. The new 911 was launched at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show and still subtly bore some styling and engineering design cues from the original VW Beetle concept.

More recently, additional models have been added to the range in the Boxster, the two-seater roadster model, and the new Cayenne 4x4. In the Boxster, Porsche have rekindled the pure sports car theme. The Cayenne has been a radical design concept departure for Porsche. Indeed the Cayenne 4x4 is the first off-road vehicle to be mass produced under the Porsche badge and represent a gamble on the part of Porsche to infiltrate the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) market, particularly in the USA. The car is said to possess excellent off-road capabilities associated with 4x4's and SUV's whilst retaining a performance sports car feel more normally associated with Porsche.

The 911 design looks set to continue and so enhance the opinion of many motor enthusiasts that Porsche, in the 911 (or the 996 to be more accurate), have the ultimate high performance super car.

Audi History

Today the Audi name is synonymous with the expression "vorsprung durch technik," which means advantage through technology. But the company has a history going back more than 100 years to the pioneering days of automobile manufacture.

In 1899, August Horch established his first company A. Horch & Cie in Cologne. His first car had a 4-5 hp horizontal engine with several innovative design features, and this vehicle was introduced to the public in 1901. The company relocated to Reichenbach in 1902, but the popularity of the Horch cars made it necessary to move again to a larger factory. So in 1904 A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagen - Werke AG was established in Zwickau. In 1909, August Horch entered into a bitter dispute with the supervisory board of the share - issuing corporation that he had created. He left the company and tried to set up Horch Automobil - Werke GmbH, but lost the legal battle to retain the Horch name. So the Audi brand was born - a Latin translation of "horch" (hark in English) -and in 1910 Audiwerke GmbH was established. By 1911, August Horch was entering motorsport events such as the International Austrian Alpine Run. Individual success on the 1911 event led to Audi entries winning the team prize each year from 1912 to 1914.

In 1921 Audi became the first German manufacturer to produce a car with left hand drive. Prior to that cars had been right hand drive, a configuration dating back to the age of the horse and carriage, when the coachman sat on the right. Meanwhile the old Horch-werke company in Zwickau had been working on a luxury 8-cylinder car, and in 1926 the 3132cc Horch 303 Berlin became available. In 1927 the DKW motorcycle company also moved into the car market with a vehicle powered by a 2-cylinder engine. Yet another company, Wanderer (established in 1913), had became a significant producer of small cars. In June 1932 the four motor vehicle brands Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer joined forces to create Auto Union AG, and adopted the four rings emblem that is today's Audi logo.

The new Auto Union company was involved in all segments of the market, from motorcycles to luxury cars. The Auto union racing cars were extremely successful with high performance engines complementing aerodynamic design and lightweight construction. But Auto Union were also involved in the production of special vehicles for military purposes, and following the outbreak of war in 1940 civilian vehicle manufacture ceased.

The unfortunate consequence of military involvement was that after the war the Auto Union factory was dismantled, and in 1948 the name Auto Union AG was deleted from the Commercial Register. In 1949 various loans were available to regenerate German industry, and Auto Union GmbH was formed in Ingolstadt. At first production was aimed at motorcycles, to be followed by a small DKW delivery van, and then the first post-war DKW car. Motorcycle production carried on until 1958, at which time the Auto Union company became a fully owned subsidiary of the Stuttgart-based Daimler Group. The company ownership changed again in 1965, and since that time Auto Union (latterly Audi) has been part of the Volkswagen Group.

The Audi 100 was introduced in 1968; it became a best seller and ensured the future independence of the Audi brand. The Audi 80 followed in 1972, a car which went on to sell over one million within six years. Then came the Audi Quattro, a four wheel drive high performance sports coupe. This car caused a genuine sensation at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show, and the Audi Quattro with its permanent four wheel drive went on to enjoy world-wide success in motorsport. Through the 1980's, continuing development led to the appearance of quattro (4 wheel drive) versions of the entire model range, the production of an all-alloy V8 engine, and (in 1989) an Audi 100 with a five-cylinder diesel direct injection engine.

From 1994 new models of the Audi 80 became known as the A4, whilst the Audi 100 became the A6. For some years Audi had been working on the use of aluminium to produce lighter production cars, and this culminated in the announcement of the Audi A8 at the 1994 Geneva Motor Show. The A8 had an all-aluminium body, a V8 engine, and was aimed squarely at the premium end of the market. Since then the small Audi A2 was launched in 2000; this is the first volume built aluminium car.

Volkswagen History

The inventor and creator of the Volkswagen ,a one Dr Ferdinand Porsche, had his own office in the early 1930's "Porsche Buro" in Stuttgart Germany. He worked there alongside about ten other people as a consultant and engineer for other companies such as the recently formed Auto Union ,which comprised of Horsch, Audi, Wanderer , DKW and Mercedes Benz. Dr Porsche became very famous for his racing cars in the 750kg racing class but in early 1931 he designed car that had many of the features of the first Volkswagen. It had a very streamlined design a central frame with the engine in the back and independent suspension. The car was built by the mc-producer Zundapp who were planing to start car production at about this time. The first test drive of this car took place in 1932 but because of the demand for motorcycles Zundapp lost interest in developing the car any further. After this Dr Porsche was approached by another company NSU who had planned a small car with a 1500cc engine. The result was the 'Type 32' The difference from the original Zundapp car was that the suspension had been changed form blade to torsion bar. Several different engines were tested including a 2-stroke but the most suitable engine was the boxer flat 4 cylinder air-cooled engine. This engine was based upon a 90hp aeroplane engine that Dr Porsche had designed back in 1912, however NSU then backed out of the project but several prototypes had already been built and tested. By this time Hitler had gained power in Germany anfd Dr Porsche realised that his car was suitable for the new roads planned in Germany. In 1934 DR Porsche delivered a memorandum to Hitler where he promised to have running prototypes ready in 12 months. The time that followed was hectic for the Porsche Buro three test cars were built and tested in the autumn and winter. An extra 30 cars were then built by Mercedes-Benz and were inspected by state employed inspectors. The name of the car was then changed in 1938 to the 'KDF-Wagen' just before the car exhibition in Berlin. The name itself was taken from the slogan 'Kraft Durch Freude'. In Berlin Hitler announced that the Volkswagen , the peoples car, was finally finished . The building of the factory then began in 1938 but only a few civilian cars were built until production was altered due to the war.
During the 1950s the beetle remained almost unchanged except for the rear window which was no longer split but one oval and horsepower rating increased to 36hp in 1954. It wasn't until 1962 that major changes took place the engine lid was redesigned, larger rear lights fitted, the cc was increased to 1200cc 40hp and it now had a proper fuel gauge replacing the old reserve tap.
1967 was probably the best Beetle of all, in addition to comply with American safety laws the front fenders were redesigned with the headlights moved forward and placed above the fender. The indicators were also moved the engine lid shortened to allow more bumper clearance and a new style number plate holder fitted. The biggest change that took place was the introduction of a dual-cylinder brake system and it was also offered with disc brakes at the front as an option. Another major development was the introduction of a 12 volt system for the electrics, the engine was also increased to 1500cc giving it 53hp also the axle ratio was lowered to reduce engine speed and give better mpg and durability. In 1969 a heated rear window, independant rear suspension and an auto gearbox with 3 gears, a steering wheel lock and a new ventilation system to help with demisting.
The Beetle was originally produced in Germany but are now just made in Brazil with production ending this year 2003.